The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones

The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones (Skt. Saptatathāgatapūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāra; Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་བདུན་གྱི་སྔོན་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ།, Wyl. de bzhin gshegs pa bdun gyi sngon gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa) opens in Vaishali, where the Buddha Shakyamuni is seated with a sangha of eight thousand monks, thirty-six thousand bodhisattvas, and a large gathering of gods, spirit beings, and humans. As Shakyamuni concludes his teaching, the bodhisattva Manjushri rises from his seat and requests that the Buddha give a Dharma teaching that will benefit all the human and non-human beings who are present in the assembly. Specifically, he asks Shakyamuni to teach them about the previous aspirations of seven buddhas, their Buddha fields, and the benefits that those buddhas can bring to beings who live in the final five hundred years, when the holy Dharma is on the verge of disappearing. Shakyamuni agrees to this request and proceeds to give a detailed account of the previous aspirations of those seven buddhas to benefit beings who are veiled by karmic obscurations, tormented by illnesses, and plagued by mental anguish and suffering.

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The Tibetan translation can be found in the Action Tantra section of the Tibetan Kangyur, Toh 503

• English translation: The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones